Tag Archives: BBC

The fallout of the Sony hacking debacle took a strange turn yesterday. According to Dyn, a U.S.-based tech firm that monitors internet infrastructure, North Korea’s internet links started to become increasingly unstable this past Friday before going completely dark for 10 hours on Monday. According to Reuters, “…major websites, including those of the KCNA state news agency, the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper and the main external public relations company went down for hours.” Dyn reported that the links were restored at 01:46 GMT on Tuesday (10:46

Today, the FBI officially confirmed what a number of other U.S. government sources have been saying since Wednesday: that the North Korean government was behind the recent hacking of Sony. From the BBC: “The FBI says it spotted distinct similarities between the type of malware used in the Sony Pictures attack and code used to attack South Korea last year. Suspicious, yes, but well short of being a smoking gun. When any malware is discovered, it is shared around many experts

Ayan Qureshi isn’t your typical first grader. Ayan’s father Asim Qureshi, an IT consultant, introduced him to the world of computers when he was just three years old, letting Ayan play with old computers so that he could learn about how hard-drives and motherboards work. “I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he’d remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information,” Mr. Qureshi told the BBC. Ayan was indeed a fast learner – so fast that at

I was going through my daily ritual of internet surfing this morning when I stumbled upon something that I thought was really cool. The BBC has put together an interactive page that tells the story of your life in a creative new way that’s both intriguing and informative. You start out by entering your date of birth: Once you’ve done that, BBC gives you access to a wealth of awesome information. The first section shows how you have changed. In this section, you

Regarded as an emblem of prestige and honor across the globe, The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually to people making outstanding contributions to the overall betterment of the world. The recipients of this award have included political leaders, social activists, and organizations that have acted as catalysts for change. On Friday, October 10, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi were announced as the most recent laureates of the Prize. Despite significant obstacles, unceasing dedication to improvement encouraged both Yousafzai and Satyarthi to make

Earlier today, the Nigerian military announced that nearly 270 Boko Haram fighters have surrendered this week following a military offensive against the Islamic militant group in northeast Nigeria. A military spokesman also announced that the Nigerian military had killed Boko Haram’s current leader, Mohammed Bashir. The group’s original leader, Abubakar Shekau, is thought to have died back in 2009. Nigerian officials say that following Shekau’s death, Bashir (who looks a lot like the late Shekau) began to impersonate the leader. “[Bashir] had been

Back in June, I wrote a post about the fastest animals in the world, including the hydromantes salamander, the mantis shrimp, the cheetah and the peregrine falcon. But life on this planet is not limited to the animal kingdom. If we’re talking about the fastest organisms in the world, then the Pilobolus crystallinus, a fungus typically found growing on herbivore poo, is definitely a contender. The fungus creates spores which it eventually shoots off at speeds up to 25 meters per second (~56 miles per

Last month, the Islamic State released a video in which one of their fighters beheaded American journalist James Foley. At the end of that video, the militant group showed images of Steven Sotloff (another kidnapped American journalist), warning that he would meet the same fate if the United States refused to concede to the terms being by the extremist state. Now, it would seem that they have followed through on that threat. Earlier today, an Islamic State video surfaced that appears to show

The “TomTato” is a veggie lover’s dream: above ground, it’s a tomato plant; below ground, it’s a potato plant. The idea was the brainchild of the horticultural firm Thompson and Morgan, based in Ipswich, England. Although the concept sounds crazy, the plants are not genetically modified; rather, they are created using grafting. This process involves making matching incisions into two different plants which allows you to connect them. A similar process was recently used by a professor from Syracuse University to create

On the Brazilian coast, a couple hundred miles south of São Paulo, lies the small town of Laguna. Laguna is very much like most other small coastal towns in Brazil, with many people relying heavily on fishing to provide both food and income. However, the fishermen of Laguna have a truly remarkable secret weapon: a pod of about 20 bottlenose dolphins. Check it out in this awesome video from the BBC series Human Planet: This interaction is a beautiful example of a